A casino conman cheated the house to illegally pay his pal nearly £2,000.

Croupier Colin Davidson paid old friend David Stanley double the amount he was entitled to during a month-long swindle at Newcastle's Grosvenor casino.

The 36-year-old, of Prudhoe, tried to cover his tracks by breaking strict gaming rules and failing to openly declare the transactions he was carrying out.

Prudhoe YC beat Germany's TSV DUWO 08 3-2 in their first-ever international friendly match at Prudhoe Community High School.

The game was sponsored by BNS Telecom of Low Prudhoe and was part of a tour to the North East by the German side, who also took on Whitley Bay's first team and faced Sunderland Reserves and Blyth after this encounter.

The match was end-to-end and fiercely fought in midfield - and within 20 minutes the hosts were 2-0 down.

A presentation on plans to revamp the region's hospitals takes place in Northumberland next week.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is proposing a new specialist emergency care hospital near Cramlington for people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside, improvements to Wansbeck and North Tyneside general hospitals and rebuilding community hospitals in Berwick and Haltwhistle. The proposals would also affect emergency care services at Hexham General.

A presentation on the plans takes place at a meeting of Warkworth Parish Council on Thursday, June 4 at 6.30pm in the Memorial Hall on Castle Street.

A woodland in Prudhoe is set to be transformed after the town's Volunteer centre won a £56,000 lottery grant.

Cockshot Dene in Castlefields Woods will get a woodland play area an other improvements thanks to a grant of £56,935 from the Big Lottery Fund to support volunteering in the area.

More funding for the project has come from the Northumberland Playbuilder programme, while sculptures reflecting the history and wildlife of the area will be installed thanks to support from the Arts Council and Northern Rock Foundation.

Shareholders in telecoms group BNS voted almost unanimously yesterday to delist from the AIM market, as the Prudhoe company vowed to steer through the recession and into the black by the end of the year.

As the firm drew the curtain on a four-year stint on the market, it said it had been "massively" undervalued due to poor market conditions and a lack of understanding among investors of the firm's hi-tech services.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs were seized in a year-long crackdown by police vying to rid rural Northumberland communities of drug barons.

The Journal can today reveal the scale of the drug problem that plagues the county's isolated countryside, with a massive haul of drugs confiscated by police specialists.

Earlier this year a top judge said drug dealing gangs were targeting rural villages in sophisticated cannabis production operations.

Bosses at Northumberland's new super council are being recommended to stick with its controversial 0845 single telephone number.

County hall chiefs have been urged by campaigners both locally and nationally to change the 0845 6006400 number, which has been provided since April 1 for all people who need to contact the unitary authority.

Rubbish police could confiscate bins if householders fill them with the wrong items.

Northumberland County Council hopes to crack down on contamination in recycling wheelie bins using hard-line tactics.

Householders who repeatedly ignore warnings to stop throwing waste food, nappies or dirty items into the bin which is supposed to be for dry, clean, recyclable materials, will have their bin confiscated.

A village fair that attracts thousands of visitors every year is on the lookout for stallholders.

Wylam Summer Fair in the Tyne Valley will take place on June 27 this year.

With just five weeks to go before the big event, organisers say there are a few pitches left for trade, charities and voluntary organisations if they want to book a plot.

A Tyne Valley man is celebrating two years of providing a free handyman service to people in the west of Northumberland.

Sandy Johnston works as a handyman for Northumberland Stars, a not-for- profit social enterprise that provides a free handyman service for anyone aged over 60 and for people with disabilities.